First Day of School

We had several firsts this year. Ryan started kindergarden! Tylor started the 7th grade at Jr High! And Kyle had a first this year too, going to a new school. Although we moved at the ended of last school year, I was able to keep the kids at Basha Elementary as there was only one month left of school. So this year Kyle and Ryan started school at Tarwater Elementary and Tylor is at Bogle Jr. High.
Another first is that all three kids get to walk to and from school. I walk with Kyle and Ryan to school everyday, yeah I'm not ready to let them do it totally on their own. I do let Ty walk to school alone, unless he asks me to come with him and take his picture in front of the school sign. Like he did the first day.

Library

The other day I needed to run some errands with the boys in tow. One was to the library to return a video we'd check out. Because it was a hot day (July in Phoenix) I did not want to get all the boys our of the car to do this. So I asked Tylor if he would run it in. He did not want to but Kyle said he would. So I let him. It was taking him way longer then I thought it should, so I sent Tylor in to see what was going on. Kyle and Tylor came back in just a minute. So I asked Kyle what had taken so long. He inform me that he had asked one of the librarians where the movies went. And then he went and put the movie back on the shelf where it went. Needless to say I ended up having to go into the library with all three boys, to find the movie and give it to a librarian so they could check it back in.

LiveSTRONG Challenge San Jose CA -James' Ride report

So they told us right before they let us go that there'd be a police escort for the first 10 miles and that it would not go faster than 20 mph.  I liked the sound of that because 20 mph is the speed I go when I ride alone and in a large group like that being right at the front of the group it'd be pretty easy to stay right with the escort and that would be fun.  Well right before the blew the starting horn, they took down the fence that was between us and the other 100 mile cyclists and next thing I knew it was like getting on a Japanese subway. Once it got underway I couldn't hear hardly anything for all the free hubs buzzing and tires humming.  I was surprised at how quickly the space filled in and found myself at the back of the lead group following the police escort.  When they turned off I was also surprised at the number of riders who went into the "power stop" (rest area sponsored by power bar).  I guess they thought that the cops were taking a break and they'd follow them again as soon as they got back out there...

Anyways I'd looked at the course map and had a kind of game plan I was going to follow.  I'd ride nonstop to the 3rd power stop and then refuel and water up there, then ride to the 5th one and stop so I could confirm with Carmen that they'd be meeting me at the 6th one.  I rode along with a few people, I kept passing and being passed by Kathleen and Bert (two other team Fatty members).  Long about the 28th mile or so Matt (our team co-captain Elden is the team captain but he couldn't be there so Matt was his replacement for us) and a couple of other team Fatty riders caught me.  I rode in their paceline til the 3rd power stop I refueled and got some water and then headed out.  The ride through the country side south of San Jose is NICE very nice.  Real pretty, rolling hills with lots of trees -don't get a lot of either of those here in Phoenix.  I rolled into power stop number 5 at like 10:15 or so, feeling good and knowing that I was more than halfway through the ride.  I called Carmen and it sounded like they would get to the next one in time to see me through it.  Power stop number 6 was at the bottom of a monster climb.  They call it a hill but I'm not so sure it looked more like a cliff face to me.  I do know that on tired legs that have ridden 70 miles any grade over 5% feels steep and a grade that is a SUSTAINED 12% for 1.5 miles is, well, just plain cruel!  I ended up beating Carmen and my parents to the power stop and as I waited the hill, looked steeper and steeper as I stood there.  They got there and because the hill was TOTALLY in my head I don't think I talked to them for 3 minutes before I said "well, I gotta go attack this thing."   In fact I know it was shorter than that because my dad hadn't even walked 100 yards up the road so he could get an "action" shot of me going by on my bike.  The hill in question is called Metcalf road, and there's a motor cross park at the top.  And the only roads that had been closed for this event were the ones in down town San Jose.  So all these big 4x4 trucks with dirt bikes in the back and on trailers kept passing us on this small two lain road.  As I'd thwarted my dad's action shot photo op, they all decided to drive to the top and cheer me on when I got there.  

Here I am cresting the top of the climb like some 40 mins later, yeah not my best time of the day that's like 2 miles per hour, I could have WALKED up the hill faster than that.  The worst part is that I stopped like three times and walked a section because I couldn't get my head around it.  I tell you that hill had me beat.  Oh well that's a goal for next year, conquer Metcalf hill!  A lot of people myself included thought that the motocross park was the next power stop and even though I'd only gone less than 2 miles I was ready for another power stop.  Alas it wasn't to be, as the power stop was in another mile and a half.  So I rode on to the power stop, refueled got some water and feeling like I'd lost all kinds of time struggling up the hill I headed out right away even before Carmen and the boys could get out of the car and come talk to me.  Yeah I think I may have been a little over focused.  The rest of the ride was nice with nearly no sustained climbing, just a beautiful downhill then rolling along the foothills in east San Jose.  Then turning west and winding our way back into down town where the start/finish line was.  The only real issue was the fact in down town I kept hitting all the lights red.  The worst part of that was that they only stayed red for what felt like 10 seconds.  The legs were just too tired at this point for that much stop and go.  

As I rode across the finish line they announced over the PA system who I was where I was from and how much money I'd raised for the LAF.  That was pretty cool.  Here I am just having finished.  Wow that was fun!

We let the boys play in the "kidz zone" for a while then we headed for LA so we could stay the night for free at Aunt Pauline's house (thanks again) and make the drive home on Monday a little shorter.  The only issue with that was it's about 5 or 6 hours to Ontario from San Jose and as we'd all been up early and out in the sun most of the day ALL of us were a little tired.  Next year we may stay in San Jose and just go home the next day... or two... Oh and Ryan kept talking about doing it too next time so maybe next year it'll be a family ride... a tandem or triple with a tandem free-loader... possibly.

LiveSTRONG Challenge San Jose CA -James' Pre-ride report

So as I posted on the Blog a few months ago I'd signed up for the LiveSTRONG Challenge in San Jose CA.  The team I'd joined was called Team Fatty, it's named after the Fat Cyclist, which is a blog a guy named Elden started to try and use public humiliation to help him loose weight.  He figured if he posted his weight on-line for the whole world to see it might help him cut a few pounds...  Well back in like 03 his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.  They thought they got rid of it, but discovered a couple of years ago that it'd metastasized and was now bone cancer.  Because they are battling cancer the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) had been helping them through this ordeal.  Late last year Elden decided that he wanted to give something back to the LAF and the best way to do that would be to start a fund raising team for each of the four cities where the LAF does the LiveSTRONG challenge -their annual fund raising event.  The way the challenge works is that to participate in it you sign up and then start fund raising, if you want to do the 100 mile ride (like I did) you need to raise at least 250 dollars.  Well as some of you may know I've lost aunts on both sides of my family to cancer and just last summer lost a good friend and brother-in-law Arlie to cancer.  One of my own brothers is currently in remission and I have an uncle who is also going through treatment.  So needless to say cancer is high on my gotta get rid of this disease list.

Anyway I harassed most everybody I knew and had Andrea, Arlie's widow post a link to the fund raising page on a motorcycle message board that Arlie had belonged to.  The response was overwhelming, I raised nearly 1000 dollars for the LAF!

So Sunday the 12th was "the ride".  Now as I'd never done a 100 mile ride before, in fact until about a month and a half ago I didn't even own a road bike.  You may ask what the difference between the type of bike I own (mountain bikes) and a road bike and I could spend days discussing the differences.  At any rate the length of the ride and the amount of climbing -actually I think I miss-read the ride profile back in like April and I thought it had like 6000 ft of climbing.  It turns out that there was only like 3000 ft.  Anyway the ride was omnipresent in my head, I really, REALLY didn't want to be a DNF (did not finish) so I started training hard. 30 plus miles at 5am Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. With a 2.5 hour hammer fest mountain bike ride on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  On at least three weekdays a week in May and June I'd ride with Dean, Jerry and Paul (some REAL road cyclists) from work at lunch time.  We'd crank out a 20 mile loop in about an hour.  So even though the ride was TOTALLY in my head and I was kind of scared I think I may have trained enough... maybe...

On Friday the 10th of July I loaded my bike and a weekend bag in the mini-van and headed for San Jose. Carmen and the boys were going to meet me there with my parents, after driving down from Portland OR.  Saturday we hung out and did a few things around town, Sunnyvale is a little different after 2 years of not living there but the weather is still much cooler than here in Phoenix so it's nice to be outside all day.

Sunday morning at 7:30 the ride started.  We WERE early then just as we got off the freeway I realized that I'd left BOTH of my water bottles in the hotel refrigerator (we were staying at a Marriott Residence Inn).  So Carmen hot footed the car back to the hotel, I grabbed my water bottles and we were back to the same spot on the off ramp in less than 15 mins.  There was a line to get into the parking garage and it was moving slow.  We couldn't figure out why though as it was one of those auto ticket dispensing things.  Well it turned out that they weren't using that there was a lady standing there and it was 7 dollars for the day or for however long you stayed, up to all day.  So a little price gouging for those of us not planning on staying there all day.  But as it was now pushing 7:20 we weren't in a good argument position.  The nice thing was that because our fundraising team (team Fatty) had raised the most money we had pole position on the starting grid.  So I knew EXACTLY where I was supposed to go.  I got there with a few minutes to spare but missed the team photo op by seconds... oh well.  Here's a snapshot Carmen took of me in the starting grid.

In case you don't recognize me I'm the one in the blue shirt.

The 4th of July

James came back up to see us over the 4th of July weekend. Both of his sisters were in town, too. Michaelynn is living and teaching school in Luxemburg. GeorgAnnette is in design school in Boston. So needless to say we haven't seen them in a while. We were able to spend some time with both of them. It was good to see them again. This year we were able to let the boys light off some fireworks as we were in Washington, which is a state with pretty liberal fireworks laws. It was a nice change from pop-its and confetti cans that we get to do down here. Oh and YES they absolutely LOVED it!

Carmen's Family Reunion

Andrea and I rented a van to drive down to Utah from Portland for our family reunion. We drove there in two days. I wanted to stop in Boise and see some friends from BYU, the Jarvis. Kyle and Tylor loved stopping in Boise because they were able to ride around on the quads that the Jarvis' own. Tylor and Kyle were able to ride the 50cc quad ALL BY THEMSELVES! Kyle liked it more the Tylor did. Tylor liked riding the bigger one -it went faster. But he did not get to drive it, because the Jarvis have a house rule about learning to ride the 50cc first, I think it's a good rule.
So we got to Utah on Thursday in the evening. We stayed with Jessica and David. On Friday, 6 out of 7 of the kids (now adults) were there at Jessica's house in the morning. The kids (all the grand kids /cousins) were able to play in a bounce house and on the trampling.
The adults were able to just sit around and/or talk and play games with other adults! In the afternoon we went swimming and then to the movies. We saw "The race to Witch Mountain". The kids were tired after a long and busy day. On Saturday, we went through the open house of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. For dinner, we had a BBQ up in Cottonwood Canyon. That was a lot of fun for the kids to run around in the great outdoors and the weather was perfect for it. I had a lot of fun at my family reunion.